Visiting Bobo- Refugee Turned Business Owner

Last week, fellow ONE field organizer Kim Smith and I traveled with FORGE to the Meheba Refugee Camp in northern Zambia.

In addition to building the world’s largest library in a refugee camp, schools, a women’s center, and assistance for refugees, FORGE, also has a micro-finance project that works to empower refugees and help with business skills.

Recently, the FORGE Microfinance Institute helped invest in agricultural loans to select farming refugees and provided much needed and expensive fertilizer for corn crops. Already is has proven to be a huge success as the farmers that received the fertilizer loan are having record corn growth.

We also paid a visit to another loan recipient, Bobo, a refugee turned baker. The first day we stopped in at his bakery, Bobo was not there and we were told that he closed his shop to travel around and stock up on corn and flour. The next day we returned and we spoke with him about his business.

Originally Bobo received a small loan to start his business. He did very well and when his rent went up in the market, he applied for another loan to build his own free standing bakery that allowed him to be profitable, pay back his loans, and provide for his wife and daughter. When we asked about the global food crisis and rising prices, Bobo took out all of his receipts and showed us the dramatic increase in the price of corn and flour. Being a successful baker and businessman, Bobo was fortunate enough to be able to stock up on his ingredients as prices continue to rise.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Field Organizer

Visiting FORGE in Zambia

At the conclusion of our recent trip to Mozambique and Zambia, I traveled with fellow field organizer Kim Smith to northern Zambia to Meheba Refugee Camp with FORGE, an organization that works hand-in-hand with refugees.

Meheba Refugee Camp has been in existence for over 30 years. It is about 700 square kilometers and has about 14,000 refugees, mostly from Angola, Congo, and Rwanda. Sadly there is no running water, no electricity, and no doctors.

A youth orientated organization, FORGE partners with refugees on a host of projects such as micro-finance, nursery schools, a women’s center, and has helped to build the world’s largest library in a refugee camp.

We stopped in at the FORGE Health Service center that was set up to aid in basic health care. Mr. Burton, the refugee that works there, told us how he helps to facilitate health care for people that are suffering from burns, insect bites, malnutrition and dehydration, and malaria.

We also stopped in at Kunachi Nursery School for refugee children that FORGE set up and operates. All the children were very eager to try out there English with us and sang a few songs.

Sadly, I noticed that during lunch, many of the children had nothing to eat, as food security is major issue in Meheba that is now being compounded by the global food crisis.

Many of the refugees in Meheba have fled their home countries due to wars and violence, and have seen horrific tragedies in their lives. Yet through it all, they are overcoming hardships and poverty and with the help and resources from FORGE, combined with more attention and better policies from the outside world, we can help to create a better partnership between our country and some of the most neglected and marginalized people on Earth.

-Matthew Bartlett

FORGES’ Peter Pushes McCain to Give Poverty Speech

I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain as well as Dr. Henry Kissinger and Peggy Noonan on Sep. 20. This was my second time speaking with Senator McCain about our cooperative mission to eliminate extreme poverty and the importance of microfinance as a key player in making poverty history. We spoke about President Bush’s Millenium Challenge Corporation and the fight against corruption in foreign countries.

As you can tell by previous blog posts, Senator McCain is no stranger to the efforts of the ONE Campaign. I urged him to give a speech on global poverty and explained that this is not a Democratic issue nor is it a Republican issue; this is our responsibility as citizens of the great country that we live in. I explained that as the most powerful nation in the world we must step up to make a difference in the lives of individuals who need our help now.

I look forward to my next meeting with the Arizona senator at the end of October. One person at a time – that’s what it is going to take to make this mission a successful one. Until then…”make it happen!”

- Peter C. D’Aleo
Program Director, FORGE Microfinance Institute (ONE Partner)
www.FORGEnow.org

Bobo the Baker Forging Ahead

“Bobo the Baker,” as he is affectionately called by his community, grew up in a life ravaged by war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was in early 2006 that he finally fled violence and destruction in his home and began a search for safety for himself, his wife, and his young daughter.

When he first arrived to the Meheba Refugee Settlement in Zambia, Bobo opened a small bakery with two other refugees but conflicts caused the venture to fail. Never one to let difficulty get in his way, Bobo approached the FORGE Microfinance Institute (FMI) for funds and direction in opening his own bakery. After attending FMI Business Education Workshops and receiving a small “micro” loan from FMI, Bobo began to re-build his bakery from the ground up.

With the new education and the loan, Bobo stopped paying rent on his shop and bought it outright, increasing up-front costs, but decreasing fixed costs. His income has shot up by more than 750%. He has hired employees and is currently planning to purchase another bakery to keep up with the demand for his breads, cakes, pastries.

Bobo’s life has improved immensely, but the benefits don’t stop there. His own success has touched the lives around him and those lives have, in turn, touched hundreds more. ONE success stimulates other success and bad situations can always improve.

-Peter C. D’Aleo
Program Director, FORGE Microfinance Institute (ONE Partner)
www.FORGEnow.org

ONE Bands at Mwange Refugee Camp

I’ve been hugely impressed by the reach of The ONE Campaign in recent months. I’m originally from New Hampshire, and it seems that nary a presidential candidate comes into my state without being “banded” by ONE and asked to talk about the complicated issues surrounding global poverty and disease. Approaching these leaders with such topics is how change can begin from the top – in government halls and meetings between international governments.

In FORGE, we’ve decided to mimic the sentiment on the ground, where change is also occurring. Whenever FORGE hires a new refugee staff member to run FORGE projects in the camps, they’re given a ONE band as a reminder that our domestic staff may be young Americans and they may be refugees in exile, but in our mission for peace, prosperity, and health, we are working as ONE.

The gesture goes a long way. After handing out the bands at a recent All-FORGE staff meeting, many of our new staff members came up to me and held out their newly-decorated wrist. “Yes, Nicholas,” they said.
“We work with you as ONE.”

Take a look at the attached picture. It shows the wrists of Kjerstin Erickson, FORGE’s Founder & Executive Director and Kashinda Lwika Zaina, a member of FORGE staff in Mwange Refugee Camp. Two people, two continents, two histories, two skin colors, and ONE shared vision. And a conspicuous tattoo.

-Nicholas Talarico, FORGE